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Thursday, October 1, 2020

Hittite Chariot and Crew

Unit #3 of the Hittite Augmentation Project rolls off from the painting desk.  This time, the second of three chariots planned for the project expansion is finished.  Three units down and three to go.  What remains are one more chariot and two bow units.  Figures are Wargames Foundry.

Besides Hittites for the Biblical Assyrian Wars project, I pushed a unit of Sea Peoples' bowmen into the painting queue.  While the Sea Peoples' bowmen will not count toward my Hittite Augmentation goal, it provides something new to paint for the project.
Reaching the Sea Peoples unit may take a while, however.  There are a number of units in the painting queue ahead of the Sea Peoples including SYW Irish and Revolutionary French and Austrian infantry.  As a radical change of pace, a handful of Star Wars Legion troops are in work.  With weather sunny and warm, mileage on the bicycle has increased after ten days of smoke filled skies followed by a couple of days of rain and high winds.  Tranquility has returned.  Very pleasant to be back outside.

Another distraction from hobby time this weekend was the painting of my office.  The home improvement project began as a repainting of the space but quickly turned into an exercise in scope creep as one task led to another.  In the end, my office has a fresh coat of paint, a good clear out, and a bit of furniture rearranging.  The game room is stacked with debris from the office refit as one bookcase from the game room moved up two flights of stairs into the office.  Next, the game room needs some attention since two battles remain out on deck as well as piles of figures, books, magazines, models, and other assorted goodies.

Still have not managed to get to the flocking of my hex terrain but someday, it may actually happen before the snow flies.  In the meantime, two more posts addressing results of the Great Wargaming Survey are in work as is a piece on my impressions of a recent remote battle of Bassignana in which I commanded the Spanish forces.

Enough to keep me busy, for sure.

48 comments:

  1. Nice unit as always they are going to look impressive charging across the sand. Lots of other distractions in our lives and I am making the most of another day off work to head (on foot) into the hills. Cycling still ticking over 👍 glad your local climate has improved

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    1. Thanks much, Matt!

      Good to see you still out and about wandering your lovely the countryside. I look forward to seeing more inviting landscapes.

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  2. Very busy indeed Jonathan. I have always like the way you base your chariots, beautifully done as always. I'll be looking forward to the unveiling of the Star Wars troops.

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    1. Glad you like the chariot basing, Lawrence! One advantage to this basing scheme is that rather than fielding two chariots on the standard sized cavalry base, I only field one!

      The Star Wars troops have been an enjoyable diversion. I am working only a small handful at a time.

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  3. My God Jonathan, that Hittite herd must getting up there in numbers now!

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  4. Great work as usual Jonathan - I agree with Lawrence, I think your desert basing is particularly effective and really enhances the figures. Sounds like you have lots of variety keeping you occupied currently and good news about the smoke clearing although fires still seem to be in the news here every other night....

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    1. Thanks a lot, Keith!

      Much to keep me busy and very good that the smoke has cleared. Fires are still burning. There was a scent of timber and brush burning in the air last night and a bright reddish-orange sun at sunset.

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  5. The wide basing really makes a difference as the whole is almost like a vignette and, as always, lovely painting.

    Glad to hear the weather has improved and that you've been able to get out on the bike. I managed a quick 13 miles today before Storm Alex hits the UK, but spent too much time having to 'dodge' others not paying attention to social distancing etc.

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    1. Thank you, Steve!

      Good to see you out on the bike! Are you back in lockdown or have restrictions eased? Infection counts are on the rise here again. Seems like two weeks following a holiday weekend, COVID counts rise. It may be a long winter...

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    2. Not yet in lockdown, but given our son is on the extremely clinically vulnerable list, we are still being very, very careful, only going out for exercise and food shopping. The school my wife works at had a Covid-19 Case yesterday, so we may even have to go into two weeks lockdown if it spreads to her support bubble. It's certainly going to be a long Winter:(

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    3. Take care of yourselves! My grandkids' school is planning to return to in-person instruction in a few weeks' time. We will see how long that lasts before their bubble is popped.

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  6. Another fine unit Jonathan - good to hear you're getting out on the bike.

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  7. Another lovely addition to the chariot force. The moment the decision is taken to decorate to whatever degree ..... mission creep is inevitable. Good job we all love decorating :-)

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    1. Thank you, Norm! Home projects just as in wargaming projects, mission creep does seem inevitable. At least the office is done and off the To Do list!

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  8. THumbs up, what a gorgeous addition!

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  9. Lovely new chariot and runners for the ever-growing Hittite war machine, Jonathan!

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    1. Thanks, Dean! Yeah, I like the sound of Hittite War Machine!

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  10. Love it. All set to smash some egyptians.

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    1. Since I have Hittites and my buddy, Egyptians, I hope you are right! Thank, Markus!

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  11. A fine looking chariot and friends. It reminds me that I need to make progress with the base finishing part of my Chariot Armies refurbishment project!

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    1. Thank you, Peter!

      Well, you have been quite busy with Roman September. Perhaps October will see return to your rebasing project. I sure enjoyed your latest TtS! game.

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    2. That is what i expect, plus perhaps at least another solo game or two on the table.

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  12. Great looking troops as always, Jon! The weather has been glorious. We have been walking quite a bit, and my kids have been on long bike rides.

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    1. Thanks, Scott! The weather has been glorious, indeed! Looks like it will remain so for a while still. Good to see you are keeping the kids active. Are they having in-person school or remote?

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  13. More lovely toys Jonathan...
    They are going to look impressive when you get them on the table...
    I’m looking forward to seeing the Sea Peoples...

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks, Aly! Sea Peoples are deep in the queue so expect a wait.

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  14. Very nice base. I'm excited to read your upcoming postings.

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    1. Glad you like the base, Andre'! I have some writing work to do...

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  15. The wide spacing helps that "vast desert spaces" feel. Nicely done!

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  16. Home projects have a way of doing that, I feel ya. Seems like whenever I do one project it just leads to another or has 5 more steps that I didn’t figure on...

    But great looking chariot! It’s going to be a very mobile force in the end. 😀

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    1. Misery loves company, they say!

      Glad you like the chariot. This army will have its share of the beastly stands.

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  17. Another great chariot unit Jonathan and will be interesting to see the Sea People next to these when completed.

    Cheers, Ross

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    1. Thank you, Ross! I look forward to getting to work on the Sea Peoples bowmen too. The Foundry sculpts are terrific.

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  18. Very nice Jonathan, armies are never really finished.

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  19. Lovely looking additions to the Hittite reserve force! Looking forward to your Sea People units, one good thing to come out of lockdown is that there are no outstanding decorating jobs in the house!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Iain! You are lucky. My list is without bounds.

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  20. Lovely Hittite unit, as usual and so glad that the smoke has cleared.

    As for project scope creep, I know that phenomenon extremely well...........

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    1. Thanks, Mike! a little high-level haze the last few days but nothing to complain about.

      Project Scope Creep: some things are universal!

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